With chants and prayers, sermons and signs, outrage about a jury's decision to clear George Zimmerman in the shooting of an unarmed black teenager led to protests across the country in support of the family of Trayvon Martin as protesters decried the not-guilty verdict as a miscarriage of justice.

"I feel if we don't step it up, we're in trouble," said Prince Akeem, 20, of the Bronx, who was attending a protest in Manhattan's Union Square. "It's young blacks being targeted, and we have to stand up, stand up to the cops."

Obama said in a written statement that Martin's death was a "tragedy. Not just for his family, or any one community, but for America."

"I know this case has elicited strong passions," he said. "And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher. But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken."

In New York City, hundreds of protesters marched into Times Square on Sunday night, zigzagging through Manhattan's streets to avoid police lines. Sign-carrying marchers crowded the busy intersection, chanting "Justice for! Trayvon Martin!" as they made their way from Union Square.

In San Francisco and Los Angeles — where an earlier protest was dispersed with beanbag rounds — police closed streets for protesters.

Rand Powdrill, 41, of San Leandro said he came to the San Francisco march with about 400 others to "protest the execution of an innocent black teenager."

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"If our voices can't be heard, then this is just going to keep going on," he said.

Earlier at Manhattan's Middle Collegiate Church, many congregants wore hooded sweatshirts — the same thing Martin was wearing the night he was shot.

At a youth service in Sanford, Fla., where the trial was held, teens wearing shirts with Martin's picture wiped away tears during a sermon at the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church.

About 200 people turned out for a rally and march in downtown Chicago, saying the verdict was symbolic of lingering racism in the United States.

Seventy-three-year-old Maya Miller said the case reminded her of the 1955 slaying of Emmitt Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago who was murdered by a group of white men while visiting Mississippi. Till's killing galvanized the civil rights movement.

"Fifty-eight years, and nothing's changed," Miller said, pausing to join a chant to "Justice for Trayvon, not one more."

In Oakland, Calif., some angry demonstrators broke windows, burned U.S. flags and started street fires. Some marchers also vandalized a police squad car.

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